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Campaign for openness and transparency at Atlantic Lottery Corporation continues

LottoFairness.ca Enjoys Early Success
FREDERICTON, Oct. 3 /CNW/ - The fact that the Atlantic Lottery
Corporation (Atlantic Lotto) has finally given Atlantic Canadians some
information about its contract with a foreign company confirms the need for
LottoFairness.ca, says the campaign's founder.
"Yesterday, for the first time in a news release, Atlantic Lotto named
the foreign company. Why did it wait for months?" asked Scott White, CEO of
Canadian company Parlay Entertainment. "For the first time in public, Atlantic
Lotto confirmed the existence of a contract, and that the contract was
untendered. What took so long?"
Atlantic Lotto's disclosure of some information came just hours after
White launched the LottoFairness.ca campaign, which in turn followed Atlantic
Lotto's award of a major, untendered contract for iBingo to a Swedish company.
White said the information provided yesterday by Atlantic Lotto was "too
little, too late" and raised additional questions. He was also disappointed
that the information was not made public until after the launch of
LottoFairness.ca.
"This sort of information should be shared with the public, routinely and
up front," White said. "You should not have to launch a public campaign to get
this type of information. You should not need a website to elicit basic
answers."
White also rejected Atlantic Lotto's explanation of its criteria for the
contract award, including the statement that Atlantic Lotto wanted the
supplier to be a World Lottery Association member. He said that Atlantic Lotto
did not disclose this criterion until after the fact, and until yesterday had
never made it public.
White also pointed to Atlantic Lotto's statement that 140 companies are
World Lottery Association members - enough companies, White said, to support
an open competition. "Taking Atlantic Lotto at its word, how does Atlantic
Lotto justify sole sourcing when 140 companies met its criterion? We believe
World Lottery Association membership is a red herring," he said.
"If World Lottery Association membership is the simple explanation for
Atlantic Lotto's conduct, then why didn't Atlantic Lotto tell the public what
it was doing and why? Why was Atlantic Lotto so secretive about the deal?
"There was too much secrecy surrounding such an important contract for
such an important public business," said White. "A secret search. Secret
criteria. Secret negotiations. Secret contract terms."
White was joined at today's Fredericton news conference by Michael Dunn,
spokesman for the LottoFairness.ca campaign. Dunn explained that
LottoFairness.ca will continue until it has achieved three objectives:
1. The four Provincial Auditors General should audit the Atlantic Lotto
award process that resulted in an untendered iBingo contract. They
should also audit Atlantic Lotto's procurement practices overall.
2. Atlantic Lotto should have to comply with the Atlantic Procurement
Agreement, which requires competitive tendering.
3. All major Atlantic Lotto contracts ($50,000 or more for services)
should be open to public tender, and all contract awards should be
publicly announced. No exceptions.
"The limited information disclosed yesterday shows why LottoFairness.ca
is necessary," said Dunn. "We want Atlantic Canadians to know what happened
here. We want to ensure that secret, untendered deals are never made again."